Sunday Readings:
Jer. 31:7-9
Ps. 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
Heb. 5:1-6
Mk. 10:46-52
“Be on your way. Your faith has healed you.”
Dr. Marsha Linehan has lived an unimaginably tough life. In her teens she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and placed in an institution. She recalls spending her days beating her head into the floor, hoping to crack her skull and die. No one believed she would ever make it past early adulthood.
She was released at 20 years old. Her path led her to Loyola University in Chicago, where she studied to be a theologian. She still struggled with a deep sense of self-hatred. A lifelong Catholic, she often went to a nearby chapel to pray. It was during one of these prayer sessions that an intense feeling of love washed over her. She recalls feeling love for herself, for potentially the first time. She realized that God loved her, that God loved everyone, and that she, too, was called to a life of love and servitude.
Linehan switched her major from theology to psychology, realizing that her discipleship involved teaching other suicidal people about self-love. She studied under Catholic priests and Zen Buddhist Monks to develop a core theory of Mindfulness, and then built a therapy around it. Her therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), is very successful in treating those with severe suicidal thoughts.
Dr. Linehan’s story seems like something out of a book. When she felt as though she couldn’t go on, and when it was as though her illness had utterly consumed her, she turned to God. The 20-year-old Linehan, praying alone in a chapel in Chicago, had absolutely nothing. She was blind to her own worth, her own goodness, and her own potential. Like the blind man in today’s readings, Linehan put her complete faith in Jesus, who gave her the ability to see the value of her life.
It’s something we can all learn from. What are we blind to? If we let God uncover our eyes, what will we see?
St. John Fisher Campus Connections 